should NBA address ring chasing and its diluting effect on the salary cap?
So for example we have a superstar like say..... Kevin Durant (probably the best player in the league). Problem is Mr. Durant did not have a championship ring placing his legacy and endorsement capacity at risk. In comes shoe company X with an idea. 'Hey Mr. Durant you can make us a lot of money endorsing our shoes if only you could win one two or three NBA rings. Why dont you join the best team in the league and increase your chance of winning those rings'. Durant says well yeah I can join the GSW, but with my max contract they will lose the necessary supporting players that make them the best team in the league. Shoe company X says dont take the max, we will compensate you with a huge endorsement contract the make up for the reduction you take on your contract. So problem solved Durant forms super team circumvents the salary cap by getting part of his max contract from shoe company X. Works out well for both as Durant wins his three rings and sells more shoes for the shoe company that made it all happen.
Moral of the story is .... superstars should not be allowed to take less money otherwise you might as well scrap the salary cap.
If you disagree with this, what stops LeBron from taking 2 million a year to play for GSW? He sure does not need the money, and if he does Nike can just raise his endorsement contract.
I'd like LBJ to play for 2 mil$.
It would prove in the long term who is in for the ring and also who can afford to do so.
Why?
Well, even before our dynasty in the making appeared I saw the Spurs. I concluded that they are the best organization in basketball. Celtics are better now IMO, but in the 1998-2007 that wasn't the case and Spurs won it 4 times in that span. Why were Spurs the best? Duncan, Pop, Manu, Parker, Buford and partially cause they had people taking pay cuts. They had 3 first ballot HOF guys playing for 2 HOFs salary. How sweet was that for the fans? Really, really sweet.
That brings us to our clairvoyant perspective. I have written before that in 2 years we will have 4-5 Max level guys on our roster (Kyrie, GH, Tatum, Brown, Horford) and it will be impossible to pay all of them their market price and keep all that talent on our roster.
If LBJ takes a severe pay cut it will be a precedent that will shape the league in the future.
Big Al would do the same, Dray Green too probably, I mean they got the max before. If you want to be a part of a historic team in this day and age it would be a prerequisite.
You can't pay 4 All-stars their market price and have a bench, this way you can, Spurs showed us, LBJ would confirm it in a more drastic fashion.
To sum it up. If Lebron takes a pay cut, due to his immense influence on the league, the Celtics would have an easier time to keep their talented squad for a decade.
New Celtic dynasty would be more possible.
There is no easy way to dethrone this Warriors team, so don't delude yourself.
Also, the idea of forcing a player to take the max money is like forcing a lottery winner to spend his money all by himself even though he would rather like to donate half of it to a charity.
BTW, I feel like Americans were frightened so much by their government for decades with communism to the point where they don't comprehend why, when and how it existed. Communism was/is a Boogeyman, everything else is a Commy lie.